Design Engineer Contract Job Trends in Central London

Design Engineer
London > Central London

The median Design Engineer daily rate in Central London is £650, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 February 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 126 136
Rank change year-on-year -2 +10 +47
Contract jobs requiring a Design Engineer 3 1 4
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 0.14% 0.048% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.15% 0.051% 0.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 1 4
10th Percentile £610 - -
25th Percentile £625 £711 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £650 £722 £450
Median % change year-on-year -9.97% +60.44% -
75th Percentile - £733 £491
90th Percentile - - £519
London median daily rate £600 £550 £490
% change year-on-year +9.09% +12.24% +16.32%

All Contract IT Job Roles
Central London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Central London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in Central London with a recognized job title 1,950 1,948 2,461
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 94.02% 92.72% 94.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,333 1,217 1,765
10th Percentile £350 £358 £332
25th Percentile £433 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.96% +4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £670 £675 £683
90th Percentile £775 £775 £798
London median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -5.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 18 36
10th Percentile £19.33 £20.83 £17.00
25th Percentile £25.47 £26.86 £20.99
Median hourly rate £26.11 £35.00 £26.91
Median % change year-on-year -25.40% +30.09% +6.55%
75th Percentile £41.89 - £38.50
90th Percentile £49.83 £62.83 £57.63
London median hourly rate £32.50 £35.00 £28.50
% change year-on-year -7.14% +22.81% -15.73%

Design Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in Central London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Design Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London.

Design Engineer job vacancy trend in Central London

Design Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Design Engineer job vacancies in Central London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Design Engineer job vacancies in Central London

Design Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Design Engineer job vacancies in Central London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Design Engineer job vacancies in Central London

Design Engineer
Contract Job Locations in Central London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Design Engineer within the Central London region over the 6 months to 4 February 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
City of London -5 3 £650 -9.97% 9
Design Engineer
London

Design Engineer Skill Set
Top 22 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Central London

For the 6 months to 4 February 2026, Design Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the Central London region featuring Design Engineer in the job title.

1 3 (100.00%) AI
1 3 (100.00%) Android
1 3 (100.00%) Apple iOS
1 3 (100.00%) Figma
1 3 (100.00%) Interaction Design
1 3 (100.00%) LLM
1 3 (100.00%) Python
1 3 (100.00%) React
1 3 (100.00%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
1 3 (100.00%) TypeScript
1 3 (100.00%) Typography
2 2 (66.67%) Design Patterns
2 2 (66.67%) Microinteractions
2 2 (66.67%) Prototyping
2 2 (66.67%) User Experience
2 2 (66.67%) UX Design
2 2 (66.67%) UX Research
3 1 (33.33%) Open Source
3 1 (33.33%) Product Thinking
3 1 (33.33%) Prompt Engineering
3 1 (33.33%) Systems Thinking
3 1 (33.33%) Web Development

Design Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Central London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Cloud Services
1 3 (100.00%) Figma
General
1 1 (33.33%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (100.00%) React
Operating Systems
1 3 (100.00%) Android
1 3 (100.00%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (100.00%) AI
1 3 (100.00%) Interaction Design
1 3 (100.00%) LLM
1 3 (100.00%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
1 3 (100.00%) Typography
2 2 (66.67%) Design Patterns
2 2 (66.67%) Microinteractions
2 2 (66.67%) Prototyping
2 2 (66.67%) User Experience
2 2 (66.67%) UX Design
2 2 (66.67%) UX Research
3 1 (33.33%) Open Source
3 1 (33.33%) Product Thinking
3 1 (33.33%) Prompt Engineering
3 1 (33.33%) Systems Thinking
3 1 (33.33%) Web Development
Programming Languages
1 3 (100.00%) Python
1 3 (100.00%) TypeScript